Balakot: Indian Pilot Missing; Modi, Rajnath Busy With Political Stunts

RAIPUR, Chhattisgarh — On a day when the Indian government admitted that an Indian Air Force pilot was missing in action after a skirmish with the Pakistan Air Force, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh busied himself with addressing Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) workers in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh.

Tomorrow Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the “world’s biggest video conference” according to the BJP’s official twitter handle. Yesterday, as much of the country deliberated the sobering possibility of war with Pakistan, Prime Minister Modi spent his evening taking a metro ride to the inaugurate the world’s biggest Bhagavad Gita at a religious site in Delhi.

The schedules and priorities of two senior most ministers of the Indian government — the Prime Minister and Home Minister —have prompted concerns that the ruling BJP is putting its electoral interests ahead of national interest.

These aircraft crashes comes at a time of rapidly escalating India-Pakistan tensions. The tensions began immediately after 40 Indian troopers were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Srinagar on 14 February 2019. Yesterday, on 26 February, the Indian government said it had struck terrorist bases deep in Pakistan territory, in a place called Balakot.